Budapest, Hungary

Our train ride from Bratislava to Budapest went by without incident, graciously allowing us to take in the wonderful scenery as we steamed along the mighty Danube (ok, not a steam engine, but was still nice) flanked by golden autumn colored trees, small boats dotting the river, and an overall peace and serenity that made me wish the train would just break down for an hour or two. Not today, sadly, but Budapest was waiting for us to indulge in her glory. 

Buda on left, Pest on Right, Danube and Chain Bridge center from Memorial Statue

The train pulled into Keleti Station located on the Pest side of the city. For those who are unaware, Budapest is actually three cities, Buda, Óbuda, and Pest. Buda is the older and more upscale side while Pest is the newer, hip area with more architectural variety and cultural diversity (I use that word loosely). In 1873, the two cities were united under one municipal government named Budapest. From this point on, it was the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – after Vienna of course – and was updated with grand buildings and palaces reflecting its seat of power.

We decided to stay in Pest at a studio apartment hostel on a quiet street close to the Central Market Hall. Despite numerous travels by now, I am always dumfounded by the various systems of assigning addresses to places outside America, which closed-minded as this may seem, I always find that having odds and evens on opposite sides of the street is remarkably efficient and easy to manage. Where our address should have been, between numbers 17 and 19, we found an empty building. It turned out that number 18 was down the street another block – because that just makes sense in Budapest. Bonus: no one was there to let us in, so we had to call and wait 30 minutes for someone to come (they learned nothing of German efficiency – then again I can’t blame them for ignoring everything German). Now we were told that Hungarian guys are very attractive yet we hadn't seen any until the hotel clerk arrived. For this, we were very forgiving of his tardiness. 

Buda Castle from Chain Bridge

It was mid-afternoon by time we were able to head out and find our way to Buda Castle while the sun was still out. We walked down to the Market Square first and hopped on a streetcar whose name was I believe “Chardonnay” and rode her along the riverbank to the famous Chain Bridge. The bridge was a modern marvel at the time at the time of its completion in 1840 because it was a chain suspension bridge that spans the very wide Danube – approximately 1,200 feet. Two giant lion statues guard the bridge at each entrance. Across from us is Castle Hill where (you guessed it) Buda Castle is perched high above the city. At the base is a funicular that whisks you up to the top in about one minute. Buda Castle today is home to the National Gallery, having the most extensive art collection in Eastern Europe.

Lovely Buda

At the top of the funicular is the current presidential palace complete with a changing of the guard ceremony that was about to take place. I must admit I was a bit taken aback by the total lack of military bearing from the guards in front of all those people. We decided to skip waiting for that to start and instead walked around the hill. There is a lot of restoration work going on now that Hungary is part of the European Union and has been earmarked tons of money to modernize – or in this case, put down new cobblestone streets and pathways by hand. At the far end of the National Gallery is a rampart and sections of the original medieval castle, and behind the gallery is ruins that date back to Roman times. There was an interesting spy museum in one of the cellars; unfortunately our intention was to view the Royal Wine Cellar however that has since ceased to exist.

Matthias Church

Heading north of the castle we came to Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion, two other iconic landmarks of the city. The church is one of the prettiest I have seen despite massive restorations and improvements over its 1000-year history. The pattern-tiled roof is simply spectacular in contrast to the sleek white limestone church structure. An interesting tidbit of history: when Turkish muslims seized the city in 1541, the frescos inside were whitewashed and the church became a mosque. During the Great Turkish War in 1686, cannon fire inadvertently caused a wall of the church to collapse revealing a statue of the Madonna that had been hidden for over a century. The statue "appeared" in front of praying muslims and the story goes that their morale disintegrated and Budapest fell the very same day. 

Segment of Fisherman's Bastion

Next to the church is Fisherman’s Bastion, a neo-gothic terrace that overlooks Pest and the Danube below. It is much younger having only been completed a little over 100 years ago. The name derives from the guild of fishermen who were assigned to defend the city from this point during the middle ages. Today the only defense is from the scores of people embracing its beauty. While you have to pay to walk on the parapet, free views are located inside certain areas not otherwise occupied by restaurants, with the spectacular Parliament Building shinning in the near distance. We walked down and made our way back to the riverbank and up to the overview that is opposite Parliament and provides the best views of the building.

 

Hungarian Parliament Building

That night we grabbed our camera gear and headed back to the Chain Bridge to play with our night photography settings, specifically the long exposures. Budapest is beautifully lit at night, comparable to Paris. We spent a while moving from various angles to capture best we could the bridge, the castle, and surrounding areas. By time we finished it was late for Budapest, and all the restaurants had closed. My picky eater earlier had trouble deciding where to eat since “this place was too expensive and that place doesn’t look good,” etc., so we did photos first. When all was said and done, the only place left to get a meal was…Burger King (my world traveler license has been docked 2 points).

Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge

Breakfast

Fast food or no food, we certainly made up for it the next day when we joined one of Taste Hungary’s 4-hour walking food tours. The tour met at the Central Market Hall (a 5 minute walk from our hotel) at 10 am. The market is unlike anything you will find in most American cities today, with our taste for large supermarkets filled to the brink of processed foods. Here, mom and pop venders sell their specialty – meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies, fish, etc. – in that old time fashion where people take pride in their work and quality of their products. During our time in the market we got to taste different types of sliced sausage, including boar and horse. We had cheese that was freshly made by a local farmer who brings it in once a week to sell and saw more pickled fruits and vegetables than I ever fathomed was possible.

Upstairs there were several vendors’ stalls selling cooked foods of all things Hungarian. To start our excursion, and in typical Hungarian fashion, we began [our day] with a glass of Unicum – a Hungarian version of Jägermeister that like original Co-cola was a 'cure-all' for ailments; I was told the old folks still swear by it. It was not the most pleasant first drink of the day, unlike my peers who went to Virginia Tech that started their days with a Jäger-bomb. After this we grabbed “breakfast,” a fried piece of dough with minimal flavor in the traditional Hungarian style unlike the other selections accompanied by Nutella, syrups, and other sweet toppings deemed the ‘American version’ – we got one of these the next morning.

Lunch

From the market, we made our way through the winding streets of the once bustling Jewish Quarter to a local restaurant for proper lunch. It was packed, so we grabbed a few bar tables outside and stood around waiting for our food. What came out could possibly be the best bar food ever: blood sausages, lamb, vegetables, some bread, fried potatoes, red cabbage, and something I have never heard of…pickled watermelon. Trust me when I say it tastes amazing (not the watermelon, the other stuff). A good beer to wash it down and we were on our way again to visit a few other shops.

Making candy by hand

Dessert was at a one of the many kosher bakeries in Budapest, famous for its Jewish influenced desserts. We sampled about 6 different items. From the bakery, we went down more small streets and stopped first at a chocolate shop for a quick tasting (as if we needed more sweets) and finally to a confectionary shop where we could see them making all the candy by hand. It looked like melted candy canes. The shop isn’t anything historic, quite the opposite in fact; rather it shows the rebirth of culture and industries in Hungary following the end of communism under Soviet influence. Our last stop was a small wine bar. We all got to sit in the cellar and taste 5 different Hungarian wines which were all considerably delicious with a variety of flavors and composition. I highly recommend anyone planning to visit Budapest to take one of theses tours.

Clockwise from top left: Gerbeaud Valrhona, Esterhazy Cake, Dobos, and Flodni

After the food tour we hopped on the subway and went to Hero's Square at the end of Andrassy Avenue. At the center of the square is the Millennium Memorial which was completed in 1900 and dedicated to the heroes who gave their lives for the freedom of the Hungarian people. Many statues surround it depicting the various heroes, including St. Stephen, and other kings and government officials. There are also statues depicting war, peace, the couple of labor and wealth, and the couple of knowledge and wisdom. The top of the memorial is crowned with a statue of the Archangel Gabriel holding the Hungarian Holy Crown.  The square also marks the entrance to the city park which has a replica of a real Transylvanian castle you can visit. We were pressed for time so we weren't able to visit it (not to worry, will get to Romania at some point). Back on the metro, we were heading down Andrassy to the House of Terror. 

Transylvanian Castle

The House of Terror is a museum housed in the former headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis - known then as the "House of Loyalty" - followed later by the ÁVO and ÁVH under the Soviet influence. Over the years, hundreds if not thousands of citizens were brought here to be interrogated and tortured. Most of them died. The upper floors contain exhibits about the history of the different regimes and their effect on Hungary. In the basement you can walk through the prison cells; I crawled into one and shut the door. The ceiling was only 3 feet high and the cell 4 feet long. I almost had a panic attack. I can't imagine someone spending days, weeks, or months in here. What happened in this house was truly terrifying and left me feeling uneasy - utterly and horribly remarkable how these people could do these things to another person - and to think we still hadn't seen Auschwitz yet. 

Once I had gathered my wits again it was time to head to the Opera House for the night's performance of the ballet Giselle. We almost didn't buy the tickets because they were so expensive - a whopping $2. Sometimes its better to splurge, so we ended up buying more premium seats for $4 a ticket. The Opera House is a smaller version of the one in Vienna, however it is no less grand or decadent with a great fresco adorning the dome high above the audience and a beautiful stage. The performance was excellent and wonderfully exciting to witness in such an amazing theatre. 

Old building off Hero's Square with
beautiful architectural details

On our last day in Budapest, we headed far into Buda to an exhibit some people on the food tour had recommended called the Invisible Exhibition. It was hard to find, but well worth it once we did (no, it wasn't invisible). A man who was blinded in a sporting accident created this exhibition for non-blind people to experience life in total darkness. For an hour he walks us through a village mock-up complete with a house, sidewalk, street, motorcycle, car, woods, and cabin, and a small restaurant and bar at the end to have a drink. The setting forces you to use your other senses to identify things you use everyday, and you can experience just how effective a “talking” crosswalk and bumpy tiled sidewalk can be to a blind person. The kitchen was really fun when our guide would pull out different spices and shake them to see if we could identify it (we also got to smell). The best part was a competition in the “sculpture garden” where we were split into two teams and had to use our hands to identify what the ten statues depicted. Some included Mary, Atlas holding up the world, and a lion. Both of us left with an appreciation for being able to see, and a revamped respect for the millions who are blind and the challenges they endure to do simple daily activities that the rest of us take for granted. 

St. Stephen's Cathedral

We finished our time in Pest by visiting the majestic St. Stephen's Cathedral, the religious seat of Hungary. It is truly massive and the inside lavishly decorated in marble, statues, and frescos honoring the stories of the bible. I might even go as far as calling it a cousin of the Vatican. While the Sistine Chapel depicts God giving life to Adam, dome of St. Stephens gives it all to God…literally. 

"…throw my hands up and SHOUT!!"

After our tour, we went to one of the famous thermal baths found throughout the city. Our choice was the small Rudas Bath that dates back to 1500. It is smaller than some of other public baths in Budapest, but still charming in a dirty old man kind of way. It was an experience far different from the thermal bath we enjoy in Beijing - a modern, very clean oasis. Rudas has a Roman style domed ceiling with colored glass built in, an octagonal pool in the center surrounded by stone columns, and four smaller pools in each corner of varying degrees. Let me just say that this is not a bath I will return to. It was musty inside and the all-male clientele is not the sort I want to be around, especially when they were staring at us. 

Since we didn't end up staying very long at the bath house, we had time to walk up to the Liberty Statue and old citadel. It is the highest hill in Budapest and offers the best panoramic views of the city. It was a tiring hike up but the view was well worth it looking out over the city on the clear, warm day. It was the perfect ending to our time in Budapest. We grabbed our bags and caught our first overnight train of the trip. Next stop, Cracow, Poland!